Chapter 21

Going as deep as he dared, Tom began to see scenes of pure horror that Malamon had left in her mind. Removing each as he went along was barely helping. Soon he was as absolutely deep as he dared to go. The young pixie had lost over 95% of her mind. Tom had been at it for an hour; all he had managed to do was give her something to anchor herself to while he tried to heal the real damage. Soon he saw the damage starting to stand out, some too far away to reach. Starting to withdraw, he now healed everything he saw on the way back out. Reaching the surface, he withdrew. Sighing, he looked at the Queen, shaking his head. “I healed quite a bit. He tortured her over and over for hours. I have anchored her mind and removed half of everything he did, but it wasn’t the worst part of it,” Tom said, a sad look on his face.

“How much of her will I have?” Adalar asked.

“As I said, I removed half of it, but the worst is still there. Had I gone deeper, it would have caused her to react violently, possibly to the point of killing someone or herself. What I healed will help her to hold on until it is stronger. I don’t dare go deeper. As for how much,” here Tom sighed deeply, “you need to keep her inside. You will see brief flashes of her, but she needs rest and the sections I healed need to grow stronger. That way, I can go back in deeper.”

Adalar nodded. “I thank you. Without you, I might not have even a slim chance of saving her.”

Tom watched as they left. He knew he had finally gotten hold of one of Malamon’s major powers; he just didn’t know which one. Damn it! It was frustrating. The bastard needed to be stopped once and for all. All these children he had hurt and killed, all the magical beings he had drained—he had to put a stop to Malamon once and for all.

Every time he got close, except for that first time, it almost seemed as if Malamon knew he was coming ... interesting. Tom shook his head. Why the hell hadn’t he thought of that before? Sitting back, Tom started to think of who it might be. They might not even know that they were telling him.

For hours, Tom went over everything that had happened over the past few weeks—the meetings, the small battles, the reactions of Malamon when they had fought. The more he thought about it, the more he knew. Frilly was hovering nearby, wondering what he was thinking about. She had been worried about Tom. He was always so busy now. Still, she hoped that Tom could help her with her problem she had been saddled with for over 3,000 years now. Finally, Tom straightened up and looked at Frilly. “Frilly, I’m going out to look for more of Malamon’s cronies. I think I’ll start in this country again. I think in the park where it all started with our training. I’ve got enough of them now that any I take out will really weaken him.”